Pretty Good

Memorable, crazy movie

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Man Up is inspired by the Richard Curtis rom-coms. It teams up an American star with a British actor. Nancy (Lake Bell) who feels unlucky in love and feeling life is passing her by ends up mistakenly going on a blind date with Jack (Simon Pegg) who is still affected from a recent divorce.Both strike up a good rapport sharing similar interests in music and movies despite Nancy being stalked all evening by a former school friend who she had a chance encounter with at a bar. Meanwhile Jack bumps with his ex wife and her new lover.This is a feel good film with a good blend of comedy, romance and cynicism. The Rory Kinnear character is too obnoxious and I think Pegg is not quite right for this type of rom-coms.

In short what we have here is a Curtis-free British rom-com that is funny because of it..I'll confess I detest Curtisland and this film mercifully avoids the toe curling dialogue of those films.Yes it is predictable and I'm sure they could have avoided the clichéd ending.However they didn't.The plot is full of coincidences which is made up for by a witty script and two likable leads. I didn't know Lake Bell was American.I thought her accent was flawless but whilst I'm no Prof Higgins, I am a Brit.Judging from her performance I would say she is one of the great Lakes. Also, in the style of Curtisland, the film is stuffed with British luvvies in bit parts,acting their little luvvie socks off.BUT no Bill Nighy!Yes ,quite a successful romcom.I liked it a lot ,with reservations.Well nothing's perfect,is it?

I've liked Simon Pegg in every movie where I've seen him, and I liked Lake Bell in the one movie where I previously saw her ("In a World..."). So it makes sense that the movie in which they co-star is worth seeing. Ben Palmer's "Man Up" focuses on a relationship that develops after a mistaken blind date. Although billed as a romantic comedy, the movie emphasizes the comedy. Bell perfectly does an English accent; watching the movie, no one would know that she's from the US. I wouldn't call the movie a masterpiece, but it's an enjoyable way to spend the time. I hope that Palmer keeps making movies, and I hope that Pegg and Bell keep starring in movies.

Romantic comedy about Nancy (Lake Bell), who on the spur of the moment usurps a blind date with Jack (Simon Pegg), that strikes a good balance between sweetness and cynicism. This is about as formulaic as they come -- if you don't know from the moment that Nancy and Jack meet how they will end up, you probably have never seen a movie before -- and if you like the formula, you'll probably like this rendering of it. There aren't necessarily what I would call surprises in store over the course of the film, but there are plenty of unexpectedly clever bits thrown into the mix to keep its predictability from becoming boring. For example, Nancy and Jack bond over, among other things, love of the movie version of "The Silence of the Lambs," which would seem to be an unusual choice, but it sets-up a great plot callback late in the film that had me in stitches.Several of the characters, especially Nancy and her lecherous school stalker Sean (Rory Kinnear), are just this side of being too obnoxious to want to spend much time with. Jack comes off a little better, not that he doesn't have his flaws of course, perhaps in part because it is impossible for Simon Pegg to be too obnoxious. Fans of the TV show "Catastrophe" might be surprised to see Sharon Horgan play a relatively benign character (Nancy's sister) who by comparison to others in the story is no where near as obnoxious as she can be. I never really believed that Nancy was supposed to be a journalist with literary pretensions, which seems like an oddly specific profession to hang on a character when the film spends no time exploring it. Jack's more nebulous "online marketing manager" strikes a better tone for a film that is set over the course of a long date. The film does a much better job of making London into a romantic city in which everyone is prosperous and healthy and needs only a grand romantic gesture to have a happy life. If you can swallow that, this film is for you.